Philip Warns Of Legislature Running Late

May 19, 1998|By Ray Long and Mike Cetera, Tribune Staff Writers.

SPRINGFIELD — Senate President James "Pate" Philip reinforced his position Monday that the state should give corporations a tax break and cautioned that a deadlock over tax relief could cause state budget negotiations to drag past the General Assembly's self-imposed Friday deadline.

The Wood Dale Republican predicted the chances of blowing the deadline are "50-50," as Gov. Jim Edgar's office maintained his talks with individual legislative leaders have been "generally productive."

Philip has been pushing to phase in tax relief for multistate corporations over five years. In Illinois, the corporate income tax for those firms involves an apportionment formula that decides how much of a corporation's income is taxable in any given state. That now takes into account the corporation's property, payroll and sales in Illinois. Under the Republican proposal backed by Philip, only sales would be used to compute the tax here, a move that could eventually cost the state about $63 million and local governments another $32 million a year.

Edgar vetoed a similar corporate-tax relief bill last year, said Edgar spokesman Thomas Hardy. But Edgar is keeping an open mind on it and other tax relief proposals, while seeking to ensure a healthy balance at the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 1999, Hardy said.

The governor has already reached a consensus with legislative leaders on doubling the exemption on personal income taxes to $2,000 from $1,000 assuming other pieces of the $37 billion-plus budget puzzle fall into place. In that event, the likely scenario would call for phasing in the increased exemption over five years.

Meanwhile, the House voted 112-0 to approve changes Edgar suggested in his amendatory veto of legislation designed to stiffen penalties for some juvenile offenders.

Among other things, the Juvenile Justice Reform Act calls for "blended sentencing," allowing judges to hand down both juvenile and tougher adult-level penalties to juvenile offenders. If a minor does not fulfill the lighter sentence, the adult penalties would automatically kick in.

The legislation also calls for several prevention measures including a statewide database that will allow police and courts to track minors through the criminal justice system.

The Senate already accepted Edgar's changes. So the sentencing provisions of the new law will take effect on Jan. 1. The statewide database will begin in 2000.